Method for the continuous manufacture of sheets of material especially wood chip board

Abstract

In a method of continuously manufacturing sheets of material such as wood chip board in which a bed of material is fed from one conveyor belt to another conveyor bed which forms part of a continuous press, in order to avoid problems caused by the discontinuity at the gaps between the two belts, a web of paper is fed onto the conveyor belt and caused to travel with the conveyor belts, the bed of material then disposed on the paper, permitting the paper to bridge the gap between the conveyor belts without disturbance of the bed of material. The paper, which is then pressed and intimately bonded to the bed of material when making the sheet of material, is subsequently ground off.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. In a method for the continuous manufacture of sheets of material such as wood chip board which includes the steps of applying a bed of particles which are self-bonding or which have been provided with a binder to a first endless, revolving, substantially horizontal conveyor belt; transferring said bed of material from said first belt to a second endless revolving substantially horizontal belt following said first belt, said second belt cooperating with a third endless belt disposed parallel and on top thereof, said two belts revolving in the same direction, to form a press section; compressing said bed between said belts in said press section and solidifying said bed under the action of the pressure and, optionally, heat to form a sheet web, the improvement comprising feeding a paper web onto said first conveyor belt so that said paper web travels with said first and said second conveyor belts, said paper web being at least as wide as said bed; applying said bed to said paper web; pressing said paper web with said bed to form said sheet web; and subsequently grinding said paper off of said sheet web. 
     
     
       2. The method according to claim 1 and further including feeding a further paper web onto the top of said bed before it reaches said press section and pressing said further paper web with said bed of material to form said sheet web; and subsequently grinding off said further paper web. 
     
     
       3. The method according to claim 2 wherein said paper web and further paper web protrude beyond the width of the bed at the longitudinal edges by a pre-selected amount. 
     
     
       4. The method according to one of claims 1-3 wherein said paper web comprises an untreated thin paper. 
     
     
       5. The method according to claim 4 wherein said paper comprises newsprint.